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Several reviews, including TR and Anand have commented on the low-quality of the 660Ti cooler. The reference models are definitely sub-par and to be avoided unless you desperately need an exhausting blower for a teeny-tiny mITX build. They may look like a GTX680 blower but they're cheap, noisy and horrible. I think the last TR quote below covers it nicely....

TR:

Meanwhile, PNY's decision to use the stock Nvidia cooler looks unfortunate, since it combines high temperatures with relatively high noise levels, despite the GTX 660 Ti's modest power draw

TR (GTX760 review):

I wish the same could be said for the GTX 760's puny reference cooler, which is just like the 660 Ti's. That cooler doesn't register too strongly on our decibel meter, but subjectively, it's worse than the numbers would seem to indicate. The 760's blower makes a rough sound that grates on my ears, and I find it hard to believe the smooth hiss of the Radeon HD 7990 somehow generates more decibels worth of noise.

Weird. That's very much counter to my experience. I guess I have a non-reference cooler, though it looks identical.

I've only heard one 660Ti and it did sound coarse/rough - like an old ATi X800/X1800 blower.
I've been mostly avoiding consumer Nvidia boards at work because we need OpenCL performance, and Kepler's weak at that.

I am guessing (no evidence to back this up) that the short, stubby GK104 boards use nasty, cut-down coolers and that the full-length boards (essentially re-using the GTX670 PCB) probably come with the superior GTX670/680 cooler too.

Somewhere, a bean counter won a fight with a designer and obiously requested a cheaper PCB and cooler for the lower-priced, lower-TDP 660Ti. Thankfully a few partners couldn't be bothered and just re-used the 670 design.

I have an EVGA GTX 660 (not Ti); it has the reference Nvidia cooler and I'm very pleased with it's acoustics. I have no idea if it cools well or not, but it's quiet.

I was in a similar situation, but with a better video card so I opted for a Core i3. You can get the card and pop in a Core 2 Quad for games like BF3, Metro, Skyrim or save those $50 for a Core i5. Quads do seem to be necessary now days

Just an update on the status since I got the card:

I got Metro 2033: Last Light to go from 3 FPS (old card) to about 25 FPS (650 Ti Boost) on Very High settings and at 1920 x 1080 resolution. Also PhysX is turned on (the GPU takes care of it).
I do see some CPU bound effects, that is, it is running at about 25 FPS even at medium settings. So the extra graphics settings only taxed the GPU.

MWO runs great now.

On another note, PSCX2 emulator didn't benefit at all. But that was partially expected.

Glad to hear you got the expected improvement